Category: drawing classes

When you look at art for sale, it can sometimes seem the artist is probably under drugs and wants to extremely profit from their paintings, drawings or other type of art. It seems so.
I once asked a lady who was enquiring about my paintings: do you know anybody who would work for about two months, every day, about 6-8 hours a day and then receive for all this work 200 bucks minus materials? It isn’t that I tried to get her to pay more or whatever, it’s just the reality.
She was a nice lady, and she honestly said she didn’t know anybody who would work on such terms. I could add to this that I don’t know either, except fellow artists who for different reasons are in the same boat.
A brief list of these who benefit not only from full-time artists, but anybody who creates art and tries to sell their art:
companies that make pencils, papers, tracing papers, graphite papers, drawing sketching, watercolor and all kinds of art papers,
companies that manufacture canvas, canvas panels, canvas boards, stretcher bars and canvas fabric,
companies that make paints, pigments, mediums for paints, solvents, vanishes, and all kinds of chemicals that are necessary for putting paint on canvas or paper at different stages or preserving the ready art,
companies that make easels, supports and all kinds of frame manufacturers, framing places and manufacturers of framing supplies, that includes mats, matting paper, glass, Plexiglas and similar materials;
every artists needs a website or blog, as well as social media presentation, so there are lots of platforms and hosting companies which sell everything from security certificates, to software for managing website, hosting, themes, plugins and many tools in order the website stayed functional;
companies that manufacture computers, tablets, ipads, cameras, video cameras and phones since we need to get the image somewhat captured and transferred to online space;
any landlord who leases studio or showroom space;
any utility provider who sells power, gas and water to the studio;
any show, gallery, exhibition, fair, including juried shows, online competitions and online shows which charge a fee for putting the artwork out there;
any online sales or art print sales provider which charges membership fee and commission;
money collecting and payment processing companies, i. e. Paypal, banks, etc.
That is not the entire list, and to some extent it is similar to expenses that are inevitable for any freelance or self-employed person, but the creation of art is definitely at the higher end of expenses, costs of materials and time consumption.
Artist obviously pays for paints, paper, canvasses, frames and framing, fees for shows and gallery representation and any utilities, as well as monthly payment for studio regardless of whether there is going to be some profit or not. Even when the art ends up in the waste basket, it still involves cost.
I know one would say: anybody who creates a product must create it first and there is never a guarantee of selling it. True, however, most products which are 100% unique, handmade and original sell for much more than the materials and labor that goes into them.
So, we have arrived at the most crucial question: who enables the artist to benefit? Who makes it possible for the artist to profit from their talent, work and efforts?
The artist can only profit from his or her clients who purchase the work whether as a product with art image on or in it, or as an original painting and drawing.
That is you. Somebody who loves and appreciates art. Somebody who has some money and is willing to spend it not on food, not on outfit, not on make-up or furniture, but art. Art is not a medication and it won’t cover you as a blanket, but it can feel that way, too. I know people who can stand for half an hour at some of my paintings and they feel exactly that: warmth and energy, and healing power.
I hope when you go to an art show next time and when you look at some painting, you will be aware that along with artist’s efforts, talent, time and soul there goes in a lot of other expense. That is an expense which is not covered quite frequently.
Being a freelance writer and artist is not easy by any means. There is a lot of insecurity: I do not know when some new work request arrives, I cannot ever guess with certainty when some painting will sell. I obviously cannot work when I’m not well, and that causes other problems. The domino effect.
Why to do this? At the present moment, this is the only option I have.
I am not sure if I will have to post something else before I fly to Latvia next Monday, yes, I unintentionally have chosen the full solar eclipse day, but whatever; I am presenting a few paintings which come as result of giving the flower painting class.

Unfortunately, both papers were not bright white. If you have enough time to dry paper decently between layers, Arches is better. It is very easy to paint on it. However, I did not have time to dry paper, so Saunders Waterford was better because it does not keep flowing that much.

Anyway, Sunday rose is for sale on Daily Paintworks, and everything is always available from me and on this website.

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Summer days are running away so fast that it is pretty clear: this summer is completely lost for me. I am usually waiting for summer so much that I do not even live during winter. It is certainly the best time to grab our paint box, some paper and go outside.

The weather isn’t too friendly in Ontario: I cannot recall so many heat waves and so many days without a drop of rain while I am here. My mornings are spent at a clinic, afternoons: fighting fatigue, so I just will have to put off my outdoor painting for some weeks yet.

When people ask: what should I start painting or drawing with, the answer is very simple. Draw and paint anything around you. There is nothing better than drawing from real objects and real scenes. Once you get used to it, you will notice how everything is more vibrant and livelier when we paint from life.

Lots of instructions start with: take a picture. I would love to say, however, if you have something set up or around you, do not take any pictures. I mean, if it is a large work and you are afraid, you’d forget the scene, well, you might also take a reference picture. The problem is that most people want to copy their reference photos instead of just using them. I might sound like an old vinyl, but it’s so silly to copy the photo and then pretend you painted it from scratch.

That’s why we have eyes and brain; we are supposed to use them as intensively as possible.

The next thing which matters is this: once you learn drawing, you are able to draw ANYTHING. This happens because you have exercised your visual perception, developed eye-hand coordination and your hand starts perceiving impulses from your brain.

My backyard

Is it important to stick with colors which somebody else is using? Not at all. It is much more interesting to explore and develop your PERSONAL color combinations. I also find that paints of different brands act very differently. My favorite watercolor paints are St. Petersburg artist grade paints. I haven’t seen anything else which has such transparency and allows mixing up all sorts of shades that easily. It is almost impossible to get a dull painting with these paints. The secret is the natural and pure pigments they use as opposed to many paint manufacturers who pretty much cheat and replace pigments with filers and binders. That means chemicals which do not enhance color or paint application.

Along with paints and brushes (I usually use just large round approx. size 12 and one size 6 brush for any medium size up to 20 x 24 in watercolor painting) an extremely important thing for watercolor is paper. When I am asking a student: why are you using this really thin and bad paper, they’d normally say, they are just learning and it’s not worth to spend money on a good thick paper. This is profoundly wrong assumption. Every paper will act differently. The thinner and lighter papers do not even absorb paint: it floats on a surface and creates ugly marks. It is also quite easy to lift paint, but not that easy to add more. My most favorite paper is not Arches. I do not like how paint keeps traveling through layers of paper even quite a few minutes after its application. I am using other heavy, cold press papers whenever possible.

My lovely old fence post

If you practice on a bad paper, you won’t know how much easier it is to paint on a good paper. Watercolor paper is definitely the most important part of all supplies for watercolor painting.

I haven’t done much recently because I am trying to recover. It’s already a month after surgery, but it seems like I will need a lot more time.

The current lifeschool blog post tells a story about the ugly side of success and how this can destroy lives:

I would appreciate more than anything else a purchase of any of my paintings. After such a long period of time not being able to work, any financial support would mean a lot. I can certainly offer very good deals on originals, and prints and other products on Fine Art America site are inexpensive anyway. Since people rarely read these posts, this might go unnoticed, but anyway, I hope I can get something sold, there are about 600 paintings of all sizes.

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I have been mentioning in my articles for numerous times how huge the gain from learning drawing, sketching and painting is. I noticed that people rarely paid attention to that, and most of them are still convinced that drawing and painting is only for those who want to be artists or already are involved in creative activities.

However, there is more and more proof that learning and doing arts is a unique activity which boosts brain activity and development of new neurons and their connections that there is no doubt: drawing, sketching and painting is the best exercise to keep our brain fit, thus, preventing early memory loss and age-related dementia.

I recently read about a new brain fitness trial which was carried out at the Newcastle University in a population of 30 volunteers divided in 3 groups for 8 weeks. One group was walking for 3 hours a week, the second doing puzzles and crosswords, and the third group took part in art class 3 hours a week. All participants were tested before and after their respective activities.

The best results undoubtedly showed the art group, which is no surprise to me because I’ve observed that during all years of teaching. I would like to just mention that I have been working with student groups of 5-30 people for almost 35 years, and those who did arts quite often excelled in ANY area of their life.

Is everybody able to draw? Yes, everybody is able to draw, but in order to do so they have to learn seeing and processing the object of interest in their brain so that the hand knows what it should be doing.

Along with maintenance of good brain health and memory, it is a fantastic, rewarding leisure activity.

Once one knows how to draw, they can forget about camera, image processing on computer, they can forget about copying photos.

Well, those who want to master drawing from life, must count on 10,000 hours, at least that’s the estimated time frame to learn drawing flawlessly and effortlessly.

Although, the benefits are so obvious, we all know that majority of people will admit they cannot draw. In fact, the truth is they don’t know how to look at something, how to pay attention and how to abstract oneself from other parts and surroundings while drawing one part of an object. The ability to draw is based on our visual ability to process the visual information and to make our brain move the hand with pencil. Basically, the visual perception is the key to drawing.

Therefore, before we draw, we have to learn pay attention and notice relationships between parts of an object, its layout, size and to reproduce this all on a correct scale. That means, most people see things, but they never focus enough to memorize what they see to the extent they could draw this from memory.

What are the usual problems when starting out with drawing, sketching and painting? Well, it depends on whether one is at the class only for the result, or for the process. Process is good for everybody, but results are evident after some longer time. I have sometimes people who want to achieve excellent results right away, in 1 workshop or 1 class, or they think, it’s not worth continuing. While we get better, we can still enjoy a lot and give our brain the necessary exercise.

Here: drawing still life

Detailed drawing which I made much darker in order it was visible

Rough value sketch for watercolor

Floral detail sketch: when my paper is too small, I do drawing on separate sheets and adjust them on the main painting

The entire drawing: full sheet watercolor paper, 22 x 30 inches

First washes

More watercolor applied

Second: watch, learn seeing and exercise focusing ability.

Third: drawing is not the same what copying photos, transferring images from photos or printing off outlines, etc. Once one gets used to flat objects in a photo, they will have much harder times to ever learn drawing in reality. Reproducing photos also does not facilitate the brain activity as drawing for real does.

All people who wanted to participate in drawing and sketching classes noticed soon that they are seeing everything in a different way.

Would you like to boost your memory and have some pleasurable pastime? Join the club. We are starting out next week.

I’m sharing some pictures which show different types of drawing.

We usually draw with very light lines for watercolor painting.

We can sketch out main values if the reference object can go bad or disappear soon.

Creating a drawing or sketch library is a good thing because we can reuse our drawing when we need it again.

Vegetables: sketch for painting

Outline drawing for watercolor

In my opinion, the only way to draw is using real objects, real setups or ask somebody to be a model. Everything else is reproducing photos. Some do this very creatively, some not that much, but only drawing for real makes one free and allows not to depend on any devices.

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By far, my life hasn’t been a fairy-tale, but rather continuous attempt to prove that our powers exceed the known limits we have put ourselves within. I believe that talk solves nothing. I am deeply convinced that too much fake positivism and superficial “everything is fine” statements can actually cause harm. When our intentions remain only as to-do-lists, there is no result. There is huge gap between the real action and intent.

We often hear that life is not fair. Well, life as such is fair and fine, it is humans who make things become unfair and unfavorable for others.

Therefore, I wish there was much less pretending that everything is fine and much more doing in order it was like that.

For me, praising the divine does not mean unstoppable talking about it. That means bringing the beauty to people and making them understand how little, in fact, we need to experience the most valuable things on this Earth. There would be much less suffering if one day we had opened our eyes and started calling things their correct names. Becoming realistic is not a bad start.

The daily routine is absorbing plenty of time and taking large amounts of energy. People who are not rich have to deal with this whether they are happy with it or not. Even though, I could do so many useful and exciting things instead of cleaning up and washing dishes or cooking, that is not going to change. I do everything fast, and I have a prevention system in place: to avoid general cleaning, I do not allow any dirt or messes to accumulate. I spend 12 hours or more a day quite often on medical writing. That is the job I make my living with. I wish I earned my living with teaching and doing art, but that is a bit of unreal idea at the moment.

The other energy drainer is my health conditions. Thankfully, I have a huge medical knowledge, so I can realistically access my options. I deal with that, too, as good as I can, and I do not pretend these conditions are going away or disappearing, because they are not. Not all wounds can be healed with good intentions and positive attitude: some take surgeries and some take long treatments. However, I refuse to be completely limited or defined by these conditions. Whining or crying is not going to help, so I am a realist and I am setting for me reasonable goals. This does not mean having a negative attitude; this is just honestly evaluating the situation and having it under control.

I have inherited love to the nature and all Gods creations from my great grandparents, grandparents and my parents. I strongly believe that family either makes one creative and resourceful or completely ignores this necessity by not appreciating the great experiences and benefits creativity has to offer, although, this does not always mean any financial benefits. I am genuinely thankful I have all skills and knowledge to dress myself, sew and design my clothes and outfits, to grow my own garden plants , flowers and vegetables, to cook fantastic meals with little efforts, to decorate my living space and create all necessary items for that and so on and so forth. This is all because of my family. Somebody might call me workaholic, but I hate simply sitting around and doing nothing. I cannot recall any single episode of my childhood or earlier years when I had to admit I was bored. I was always busy. Trying to make something from nothing. That is a great way to, a great way to live since I am seeing some opportunity just about everywhere.

I am sending flowers to my mom every time whenever there is some important day or some celebration because I know she appreciates and loves them. We are far away, the Ocean is between us, but we can talk on Skype. My husband gives me flowers on every occasion, not only when there’s a celebration or birthday, but just for pleasure, as well. I have always fresh flowers around me, many are potted. I believe he does this because he knows how I am talking to plants and how much I enjoy them. They respond with adorable blooms and never-ending beauty.

I feel that my duty is to teach other people to enjoy things which are not that costly, but rather a true source of happiness, pleasure and satisfaction. It would be tough going through life without art and beauty. The importance of brain fitness is completely ignored, but I am trying to make everybody aware how this can be achieved with simple sketching and drawing on a daily basis. If one can escape the age related dementia and loss of brain functionality just doing some visual art exercises, why don’t they do that? That’s a good question because physical body is always put first and mental and spiritual well-being is supposed to occur automatically which is absolutely and totally wrong.

I hope I’m doing my part and creating art pieces for our eyes to enjoy. To me, this means praising the divine every single moment not only in words, but with doing.

Robins nest: a greeting card, poster, art print, and wall art

View on the table of my paintings, originals are 16 x 12 inches each

I struggled a lot to get the right colors on photos, some came out ok, some not that much

These are the new images for spring cards, Mother’s Day cards and cheerful prints to decorate our living space for warmer and lighter season. They look excellent as pillows, too, I cannot enjoy enough. Everything is available through Fine Art America at very moderate prices (link on the right side).

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Such classes are lots of fun, they are exciting, and students can create very real art for whatever needs they have: decorating teen’s room, giving as a gift or preparing a portfolio for future studies in an art college.

I have scheduled 1 acrylic painting class for teens and young adults (10 to 18 years) during this fall term.

Thursday 5.30 pm – 6.30 pm (teens/youth 10-18) Fee: $14

Lots of excitement, lots of discoveries, lots of fun, not to mention the happiness of having created something.

Materials are not included; however, the material list for teens is noticeably smaller than for adults.

Pretty many sheets of thick paper towel and medium large plastic or paper plates

Kids and teens who want to draw more and use watercolor or watercolor pencils are welcome to attend 2 Tuesdaywatercolor and drawing classes and 1 Wednesday drawing, sketching and painting class:

Tuesday 5.30 pm- 6.30 pm (teens/youth 9-15) Fee: $14

Tuesday 7 pm- 8.30 pm (teens 10-18) Fee: $16

Wednesday 5.30 pm- 6.30 pm (teens/youth 9-15) Fee: $14

Development of observational drawing, visual perception and artistic abilities; starting with simple objects, perspectives and scenes and gradually achieving excellent results. Very exciting classes with plenty of pleasure to explore new themes.

Materials include good watercolor paint set (please do not get absolutely spicy shades), watercolor paper from 14 x 18 and up to 16 x 20 in; 3 watercolor brushes: 1 flat (1 inch); 1 round size 8 and 1 round size 10-12, all with fine tips, pencil, eraser, cardboard base and painters tape to attach the paper, rather larger size plastic palette for mixing up paints and fairly many sheets of paper towel.

Watercolor pencils are optional.

Registration is already on.

I have scheduled an introductory class for newstudents and those who might be interested on August 29 between 4 and 6 pm. I will pass out applications, answer questions and show materials.

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We said good-bye to each other until the fall. There were lots of hearty and sincere have-a great-summer wishes and thankful hugs. Teen class was obviously not that excited, but the pleasure of seeing big surprise in parents eyes when they hardly can believe in the great achievements of their kids is hard to describe.

Quick floral demo, just the first part

My art students are very different, some would paint small details for hours, some don’t find still life exciting, but all of them wanted to become more skilled, more insightful and more creative.

The best results are achieved with patience and persistence. Time is the most challenging factor, and we are so often short of it. Those students who were able to find time, definitely enjoyed their creative experience.

The adult acrylic painting class was doing rural scene with barns. Even though, not everyone was able to attend the last class, I have to admit that their progress was very obvious (when students start to come to classes, they have absolutely no experience with acrylics).

Barns are amazingly pleasurable things to paint

Paintings are still in progress, but I’m sure they will be done after a while

We used only red, yellow and blue, and applied these colors in very loose washes

Painting negatively with positive attitude

We are paying the most attention to the development of observational skills, and less to implementation of the photographic likeness what camera sees.

My fall schedule is more compact, all classes take place in the middle of week, so that students don’t have to miss them because of parties, celebrations and long weekends. I have also separated landscape painting and floral/still life painting. I am starting acrylic painting classes for teens 12+ in the fall, as well. There were many requests.

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I recently finished a watercolor painting which already initially was intended to serve as image for Mother’s day card. We started to draw birds at our teens painting class and got the painting done during 2-3 classes.

I worked out two versions: one without text (when ordering, anybody can place their own text on the inside) and with short text.

Both versions can be found and ordered as cards via Fine Art America website:

It’s needless to say that any painting can be bought as a print of many different types and with hundreds of framing choices at very reasonable prices and in excellent quality. Any purchase comes with 30-day money-back guarantee in case you are not satisfied with some aspect.

Fine Art America offers to download a free app if you are using any kind of smart phone, iPhone, iPad or similar device which has camera to view the particular painting in the chosen frame (there are really hundreds) or without a frame on the exact wall space or room space where you intend to place it. The app will apply your chosen size, therefore, you can see everything according to real proportions.

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The story behind the painting is believed to be one of the best ways for selling art. Well, that really depends. When selling online, we don’t even know who’s bought the art, and when selling in person, it’s not always a good time for stories.

Spring forest: acrylic painting on canvas

An interview with an old artist comes to mind when I’m thinking about how much art critics and art reviewers love rich wording.

Blossoming orchard: apple trees in bloom, acrylic painting

A young journalist pays visit to a much experienced, fairly rough artist and asks for permission to write an article about his art. The artist just keeps working, and seems to be neither too excited, nor too denying about this idea. Thus, the journalist takes out her notebook and starts questioning the old guy.
“How is that all of your art is structurally so multi-layered, multi-faceted and multi-reflective when depicting just routinely flat, boring and standard, sometimes underappreciated subjects? How can it show the underlying emotional hidden mystic concepts of these subjects in such an enormously effective and mentally enriching way?”
“Well, I just grab some paint and brush it on.”
“Sounds very simple, but how could you master describe the energetic overload in these trivial scenes which are jammed with overlaying structurally heavy, spontaneous brush strokes which seem to evoke in us the ancient and primary instincts and passions?”
“Well, I suppose, you see it now: I just grab some paint and brush it on.”
“Sure, your painting style is just fantastic and breathtaking. How about your artistic concepts when choosing these uninteresting subjects, but painting them in the way we experience things we never even knew about, not to mention we could see them captured in this vibrant, rigorously abundant manner which takes us to other dimensions and to futuristic domains of our mind?”
“Well, I don’t think, anything else says it better, as: grab some paint and brush it on.”
“Thank you, master. Would you like to share some of your secrets about implementing in your work this indescribably multifold capture and immediate expression of this vivid, eternally uplifting, intricately subdued and emotionally unvarnished light fractures?”
“Well, it’s kind of tough: just grab some paint and brush it on until you like it”.

Serene rural fall scenery: acrylic painting on canvas

Images which are attached to this post have been painted as demonstrations for classes. I finished them afterwards since I never get time enough during the class while I am trying to follow up on each student’s work. So, that’s the story: paintings of elements which we had to practice on.

Pink and white amaryllis: acrylic floral painting on canvas

It took me a while, but these paintings are available at the gallery now.

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Teen class has been very busy, as well. Some students were not present during March break, some could not attend classes because of Easter holidays, but we just keep going and enjoying the pleasure of being able to create something great, cheerful and uplifting.

Elaine’s vision of blue garden anemones

Mary’s painting of purple spring anemones

I have noticed, it’s so much in fashion to write books about anything, including art, all these books and e-books are supposed to be innovative, thoughtful and informative “how to” books.

While there’s some useful advice contained in a few of them, it’s most often a description of very common, very basic and very well-known stuff. The same about lots of DVDs, online art classes, tips, ideas, etc.

Kristina is genuinely happy since the chickadee painting came out extremely nice

However, there’s a big difference when painting on your own and in reality, and reading about it, or watching somebody else painting. You won’t know how that is until you try it on your own with a real brush or pencil in your hand.

Presence of a live teacher is extremely important. That not only speeds up everything, but also provides students with plenty of information in a very short period of time, allowing to experience and apply everything right there and right away.

This is a very direct and very immediate “how to”. Any question receives answer on spot, any problem gets solved straight at its origin.

Mary’s watercolor painting of chickadee in progress

Chickadees on blossoming apple tree background: demo version

Watercolor wash: spontaneous and simple application of watercolor

Well, those ones who want to learn something are very happy with my classes, and so am I because it’s always a pleasure to see fast development of young, talented artists, and to know that I have contributed quite a lot to this development.

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Some of teens have started attending art and painting classes at a very young age. Since we are dealing with a bit more complicated stuff and techniques than general art classes which actually are more play than learning, I prefer teaching teens from 12 years. We are working to achieve results, to make things happen. This is an excellent age for absorbing new knowledge and developing the personality. While many parents support kids’ involvement in artistic activities, there shouldn’t be put any pressure on choosing some particular activity. It is very noticeable straight from the beginning who is genuinely interested in drawing, painting and creating art, and who is just a passerby, somebody who does not really know yet whether he or she would like this type of activity, or not.

Our classes involve personality training, development and growth opportunities along with acquisition of typically necessary artistic skills, since the discussed matters are never limited to only color choices, composition and subject research. Creation always takes some effort; even though, we are trying to never show the difficulties we experienced during this process, but the great effortless final product of our imagination and artistic skills.

There are impatient teens and impatient adults. The same applies to seriousness, devotion, commitment and willingness. It is obvious that those with a goal and genuine interest always get faster and better results. This is something to consider before you sign up your daughter or son for art classes: will your kid have discipline and interest enough to attend the class regardless of any other issues? Isn’t that just a mood, a desire which will never get fulfilled?

It is easier to deliver excellent results in a small size teaching environment because I can teach taking into account specific individual needs and personal features of a particular student.

Watercolor painting of seagull

Some students enjoyed painting birds more than painting flowers, it always depends

I am proud that our mutual efforts are resulting in fantastic achievements.

I am also sure that age actually does not matter: when there is a will, there’s a way.

Since I’m documenting our achievements as we go, the progress is so obvious when I compare how some students were painting a year ago and how they are painting now.

Some paintings were just started during this class, and some got the final touches.

The most important thing is that we are moving, and “We are moving fast” as one girl said after the previous class.